USA > Missouri > Scotland County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 35
USA > Missouri > Lewis County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 35
USA > Missouri > Clark County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 35
USA > Missouri > Knox County > History of Lewis, Clark, Knox, and Scotland counties, Missouri. From the earliest time to the present, together with sundry personal, business and professional sketches and mumerous family records > Part 35
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124
387
STATE OF MISSOURI.
hard fought field for the stars and bars. Many of Price's best soldiers, brave as the old guard; not a few of Cockrell's old. Iron Brigade, the flower of Joe Johnston's army; dozens of Mc- Culloch's troopers and Porter's raiders, dashing and dauntless as the " Six Hundred," fought their apprentice fight at Athens- and ran away! At the desperate battle of Corinth, Miss., a little more than a year later, Moore with the Twenty-first Missouri, many of whom were at Athens, again encountered Green with his Missouri brigade, and found that experience had taught the Con- federates a great deal. They moved to the assault with the steadi- ness of grenadiers, and fought very bravely. By that time they had learned well what should be one of a soldier's first maxims, never disparage the courage and ability of the enemy.
The Unionists estimated the Confederate forces on the field. at 1,500, of whom a large majority took part in the fight. This was undoubtedly a very great over-estimate. Naturally enough, the victors would estimate the strength of the enemy at the high- est extreme, while the vanquished would estimate their own strength at the lowest extreme. Maj. Benjamin W. Shacklett estimates the Confederate forces at Athens at only 400, and some of Green's men claim a still less number, while others admit a larger number. One especially, in whom the people have much confidence, thinks that Green had about 540 men in the action. So here are the two extremes, and as the exact figures can not now be ascertained, the reader must draw his own conclusions. The writer would suggest, however, that it seems very strange that Green would have made the attack with such a small force as some of his men now claim he did. Col. Moore claims that he fought with but 343 men. Spellman's skedaddle and the de- taching of Farris' company to guard the prisoners undoubtedly cut down his reported force of 450 to something near the number stated, which the Colonel asserts as the correct number which he has had long fixed in his mind. But by this statement he by no means desires to convey the impression that 343 men could easily vanquish 1,500 Confederates on a fair field in open fight, under ordinary circumstances. A year later Green would, in all prob- ability, have destroyed or captured Moore's entire force.
The loss in men was insignificant, only five Confederates were
388
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
killed outright, and perhaps about twenty were wounded. Three of the killed were Eli Butler, of Marion; Joseph Ewalt, of Lewis, and John Thompson, of Clark County. The Union loss was William C. Sullivan, and a man by the name of Harrison killed, and a few wounded. As the engagement was decisive, in that it established the "title by conquest" to a considerable extent of territory, dispersed one army and strengthened another, it may with propriety be called a battle, since battles are not always des- ignated by the number slain, but by results and effects.
In the rapid retreat from the field at Athens, the drivers of the artillery tried hard to keep up with the foremost. The gun carriages were not of the regulation pattern, and were rather light. In the run over the rough road, the carriage of the six- pounder straddled a stump about six miles south of Athens, and the elevating screw caught and was bent so that it was im- possible to depress or elevate the piece until the injury should be repaired. Pressed for time and a little panicky anyhow, the cannoneers drove the gun off the road and into the thick brush as far as possible, and, unhitching the horses, abandoned it. Here it remained for several days, until the rebels, learning that it had not been discovered, slipped up one night and hauled it away to Green's camp, at Short's well. The cannon used at Athens after- ward formed a part of Capt. Kneisley's "black battery," and did service at Shelbina, Lexington, Pea Ridge and elsewhere. No other general engagement took place in Clark County during the war. On one occasion, a skirmish, known as the Scott Ridge fight, took place between Capt. Luther Washburn, with a com- pany of about fifty cavalrymen on the Union side, and Capt. Andrew Baker, with about seventy-five cavalrymen on the Con- federate side. The latter was put to rout with the loss of one man killed-a Mr. Combs.
About the 1st of August, 1862, William Ousley, a Confeder- ate officer, and about thirty of his men, raided Alexandria, taking guns, blankets, etc. They took breakfast at Hewitt & Russell's boarding house. After they had gone, the military from Keokuk came down and arrested a few citizens. About the 20th of Sep- tember, 1862, Capt. Josiah McDaniel, of near Bethlehem Church, on Fox River, and a young man whose name the writer could not
389
STATE OF MISSOURI,
obtain, started in a southwesterly direction to join the Confeder- ates in the country below. They staid over night at the house of Thomas Horn, two and a half miles south of Granger, in Scot- land County, and the next day, when on their way, about five miles west of Fairmont, they were bushwhacked by the militia. The young man was killed, but the Captain made his escape. The former was buried at the Bear Creek Church in Clark County.
OTHER ATROCITIES.
ยท On Sunday morning, May 10, 1863, a detachment of Capt. Hahn's company of enrolled militia (Company K, Sixty-Ninth Regiment, under Lieut. Thomas S. Staples) was fired upon by bushwhackers, near Fairmont, and the Lieutenant and Pri- vate Mussetter were killed. Lieut. Staples was an excellent man, and well liked by all who knew him. On being notified, Capt. Thacker's company (M, of the same regiment), and some militia from La Grange, in Lewis County, galloped over to Fair- mont, scoured the country, and took some prisoners. Maj. C. W. Marsh (afterward Gen. Schofield's adjutant-general, and now of Troy, Lincoln Co., Mo.), was sent to Fairmont to investigate the matter of the killing of Staples and the private soldier. He caused the arrest of Samuel Dale and Aquilla Standiford, who lived in the neighborhood, and tried them by a court-martial of militia officers. They were found guilty of being with the party that bushwhacked Staples, and were executed on Tuesday, May 26, 1863, at Fairmont. On the night of June 16, 1863 (soon after Dale and Standiford were shot), Dr. B. R. Glasscock, who lived on the main road from Memphis to Canton, about five miles: southeast of Fairmont, and who seems to have been guilty of no other crime than that of being a "rebel sympathizer," was taken out by five men and shot. The following statement of the particulars of this matter was made by Dr. Glasscock's daughters, and published in the Canton Press about July 1:
Dear Sir: * * * About ten o'clock at night, June 16, five men came to our house, and said they were Capt. Hahn's men, from Fairmont, and had come after father for a witness on some case that was being tried there. He begged them to let him stay till morning, but they would not. He then bade his three chil- dren farewell (his wife being absent), and said they must do the best they could. He seemed fully convinced that they intended to murder him, and told them, if
390
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
that was their intention, to perform the deed at his house, and not to take him away. They said that was not their intention, and promised the children that he should come back next morning. By his request, one of his black men fol- lowed him about a mile, until they drove him back, notwithstanding the entreaties of his master to come on. The report of five guns was soon after- ward heard, and next morning search was made for him, but to no effect, and believing at last that he had been taken to Fairmont, all the searchers returned to their business. About ten o'clock next day, as the soldiers came down from Fairmont on their way to Canton, they told one of our neighbors that they had found a dead man lying about 200 yards from the road. This proved to be the body of our dear, dear father. His body was pierced By five balls, and his neck and skull broken. He had not been robbed, although he had some money with him. Maj. Marsh has taken the case in hands, and is doing all he can to find out the guilty.
Yours very respectfully,
THE DAUGHTERS OF THE DECEASED. Clark County, Mo., June, 1863.
It seems, however, that the guilty parties were never dis- covered and brought to justice. On the 4th of August, 1864, a squad of Capt. Felix Scott's company of Deer Ridge Militia, under Lieut. Mc Williams, went to the house of Samuel Dillard, near the head of Bear Creek in Clark County. Two men, Dillard and George Standiford, ran from the house. The militia fired upon them and killed Dillard, whose gun was found leaning against the fence in the field where he was killed. Standiford escaped. In the fall of 1864, Mr. Moore, living near Waterloo, while assisting Rutherford in killing hogs was taken out and shot. Samuel Bryant, who lived about three miles south of Kahoka, was called out of bed one dark night, and while putting on his socks was shot and killed. Samuel Davis, who lived between Fairmont and Colony, was taken out and shot and killed, and his house was robbed. He and Moore and Bryant were all in sympathy with the Rebellion. On one occasion, when Z. C. Shannon, a Union soldier, was at home on a furlough, he met S. Kibbe at Athens, and quarreled with him about a horse belonging to the latter, and which he (Shannon) wanted to obtain. Kibbe avoided his antagonist during the day but hap- pened to meet him again in the evening. He then retreated into Sprague's store, being closely pursued by Shannon, who shot him as he escaped from the store through a window. Kibbe then got up, walked around and entered the store at the front, and fell dead upon the floor. He, too, was a Southern sympa- thizer. Shannon was not arrested.
391
STATE OF MISSOURI.
On another occasion a Federal soldier by the name of Humphrey, while on his way home, was shot and killed near the residence of old Mr. Butler, about two miles northwest of Luray, by a band of bushwhackers claiming to be Confederate soldiers. Other atrocities of a similar nature, concerning which the writer has been unable to obtain information, were undoubtedly com- mitted in the county during the war. At the outbreak of the war the people of Northeastern Missouri were strongly in favor of neutrality, but this could not be maintained by a people with such decided political differences. They could not remain silent, but would express their preferences. Col. H. M. Hiller tells a good joke on himself and others, who thought they could by negotiating with the contending powers, bring about and main- tain neutrality in all the Territory of the State north of the Missouri River. Having conceived this idea, a conference of leading citizens, representing both Union and disunion sentiments, was held, and he, Hiller and Hon. I. N. Lewis were appointed to visit and confer with Gen. Fremont at St. Louis, and another committee was appointed to confer with the Confederate author- ities. So he and Lewis hied away to St. Louis to prevail on Gen. Fremont to withdraw all the Federal forces from the Terri- tory north of the Missouri River, on condition that the Confed- erates would do likewise. But Fremont was busy, being about to descend the river with a flotilla to assist the Federal forces below, and consequently this neutrality committee could not get " a hearing " with the General. They then returned to Alex- andria, and Hiller went to Athens and Lewis to Keokuk, and the next Monday morning the battle of Athens opened up. Their efforts to maintain neutrality north of the Missouri thus proved futile.
THE EARLY SCHOOLS.
The pioneers of Clark County, in common with the first set- tlers of all new countries, were deprived of educational advantages for their children. As soon, however, as a sufficient number of pupils were found to exist in any particular locality, the parents or guardians thereof assembled and erected one of the old-fash- ioned log schoolhouses, with puncheon floor, and open fireplace with its stick-and-mud chimney, furnished with hewed plank
392
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
benches for seats, and rough boards resting on pins driven into the logs, which formed the walls of the house, for writing desks. These were the pioneer schoolhouses, in which the children of the, early settlers received the rudiments of their education. These schools were known as subscription schools, the teachers being paid by the parents or guardians of the pupils in propor- tion to their members. As soon as the county was sufficiently settled it was divided into school districts, and preparations were made for the maintenance of public schools. The amount realized from the sale of the school sections as noted in this work under the head of "public lands" constituted the first public school funds, and as these lands were sold very cheap, and some of them were not sold until quite a late day, and as the interest, which was annually received on the principal for which the lands were sold, could only be appropriated for the support of the schools, it follows that the public school funds were very meager and insufficient to pay teachers. The aggregate amount for which all the school lands of the county were sold amounted to $24,296.20, and supposing this to be drawing inter- est at the rate of 6 per cent, it would only bring $1,457.77 for the support of the public schools in each year. And this amount could not be realized in an early day.
According to the school law of the State of Missouri passed in March, 1835, it was the duty of the county court to establish school districts in each Congressional Township, not exceeding four, as soon as school lands therein were sold to the amount of $800. And it was made the duty of the trustees of each school district to employ a teacher, and keep up a school six months in each year, which all white children between the ages of six and eighteen years, and belonging to permanent citizens, were entitled to enter, and when the income from the aforesaid school fund was insufficient to support the school for that length of time, the trustees were to apportion and collect the deficit from the patrons of the school in proportion to the number of pupils sent by each. It seems, however, that the early citizens of the county were not greatly in favor of public schools, or it may be that they were not able thus to support them, for they only kept their schools in session for from three to four months instead of six, as provided by law.
J. A. LAPS LEY. ( DECEASED ) CLARK COUNTY.
1
393
STATE OF MISSOURI.
Not much can be said of the public educational interests of Clark County until the revised statutes of 1866 went into effect. And to show how the public school system has progressed under these and subsequent statutes, the following statistics have been taken from the report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction for the year ending July 1, 1886. The increase in the county public school fund from 1877 to 1886, inclusive, has been as follows: 1877, $32.90; 1878, $276.15; 1879, $247.05; 1880, $322.30; 1881, $323.15; 1882, $821.35; 1883, $2,007.38; 1884, $327.65; 1885, $209.15; 1886, $878.62, making $5,445.70 as a total increase to this fund for the ten years as abovestated. This fund was created by the school law of 1835, which provided that " all fines and forfeitures collected for the use of the State or county be appropriated for the use and benefit of the schools of the county, where they are collected." By a subsequent statute, passed after the swamp lands were patented to the State, it was provided that a portion of the revenues derived from the sale of said lands should be appropriated to augment the county public school funds, and from these sources this fund has accumulated from time to time until it amounts, according to the superintend- ent's report, to the sum of $25,346.48; and the township funds according to the same report amounted to $27,011.25, making a total of $52,357.73 of the permanent public school funds of the county. The interest only on this fund can be annu- ally appropriated to the support of the public schools.
SCHOLASTIC POPULATION.
White-males, 2,573; females, 2,489; total, 5,062. Colored -males, 38; females, 40; total, 78. Grand total, 5,140. Enroll- ment: white-males, 2,340; females, 2,275; total, 4,615. Colored, none enrolled.
Graded schools .- Kahoka enumeration: white, 380; colored, 12; total, 392. Enrollment: white, 352; colored, 12; total, 364; number of days taught, 157; value of public school property, $44,276; cost of pupils per day, 5.8 cents; number of white schools, 90; number of teachers, 136; average monthly salary of teachers, $28. Average tax levy on each $100 of taxable property, 57 cents.
25
394
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
According to the foregoing it will be seen that a little over 91 per cent of the white scholastic population of the county attended the public schools, which is certainly a very good show- ing on the subject of attendance. But the 78 colored children had no public school to attend. This was probably unavoidable on account of there not being a sufficient number in any one local- ity to constitute a school. The total receipts for the use of the public schools of Clark County for the school year ending July 1, 1886, was $28,356.97. Of this amount, $19,361.32, was derived from direct taxation, and $531.30 from the State, and the balance from the interest on the aforesaid county and township funds. The total expenses for the same time were $23,686.13. Of this amount, $19,878.61, was paid out to teachers ; $1,510.59 for fuel, $1,185.74 for repairs and rent, $974.10 for apparatus, and the balance for other purposes.
KAHOKA COLLEGE.
In August, 1884, a meeting of the citizens of Kahoka and vicinity was held at the courthouse for the purpose of taking the necessary steps to establish a college in or near the town of Ka- hoka. Hon. T. L. Montgomery was selected as chairman, and Prof. J. F. Jamison as secretary. Col. H. M. Hiller then read the agreement of certain persons to take stock to raise the sum of $2,500, and to take the other necessary steps preparatory to incorporation. This agreement was approved, and a paper ordered to be circulated for the subscription of stock. On the 28th day of said month, and after the sum of $2,500 had been subscribed, the stockholders met at the courthouse, and elected the following board of directors, viz. : George S. Stafford, H. M. Hiller, C. S. Callahan, Jacob Trump, George W. Bostic, Adam Lang, R. S. McKee, John Stafford and T. L. Montgomery. Then by a majority vote of the stockholders, the site for the col- lege building was chosen at the north end of Washington Street in the town of Kahoka; the site being 300 feet east and west, by 400 feet north and south, and immediately adjoining the town of Kahoka, and the center of the tract being directly north of the the north end of said street. Col. H. M. Hiller then gave this tract of land to the college authorities in lieu of his subscription, and agreed to open out a street sixty feet in width all around the same.
-
395
STATE OF MISSOURI.
Two days later, August 30, the board of directors met, and elected their officers as follows: Robert S. McKee, president; Adam Lang, vice-president; T. L. Montgomery, secretary ; George W. Bostic, treasurer; and on the 13th of September following, the board appointed John Stafford, Robert S. McKee and George W. Bostic, as the building committee, and Col. H. M. Hiller, T. D. Montgomery and G. S. Stafford as a committee on constitu- tion and by-laws. Then at the October term, 1884, of the cir- cuit court of Clark County, the aforesaid college officers sub- mitted to the court their articles of association, and a petition praying for the incorporation of Kahoka College, whereupon the court, after examination of the matter, and being satisfied that the petitioners had fully complied with the provisions of the statutes made and provided in such case, ordered " That the prayer of the petition be granted, and that the said Kahoka Col- lege be created a body corporate and politic, and that the clerk attach a certified copy of this order to the said articles of asso- ciation."
The introduction to the articles of association reads as follows: " We the undersigned shareholders are hereby declared and con- stituted a body corporate, under the name and style of 'The Kahoka College,' for the purposes of promoting the interests of education, and for granting diplomas and other literary degrees usually conferred by colleges of learning." These articles pro- vided that the corporate powers of the college should be vested in a board of nine directors, to be selected by the stockholders, and that the officers of the corporation should consist of a presi- dent, vice-president, secretary and treasurer, all of whom should be elected from the board of directors. There are ten articles of association, which together fully set out the powers of the cor- poration. The college edifice was completed in the summer of 1885. It is an imposing two-story brick building, very substan- tial in its structure, and is 32x60 feet in size, and has two rooms and a half on each floor. It cost, together with the grounds, about $5,000. It is handsomely and conveniently located, and presents a beautiful view from all directions, but more especially to persons passing up Washington Street. Prof. J. D. Blanton had charge of the college during its first
396
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
school year, and Prof R. B. McCollum during its second school year, and Profs. W. C. and R. B. McClure having been engaged, are preparing to open the college and begin the third school year September 5, 1887, consequently the school will be in session when this work reaches the reader.
The original list of stockholders in the Kahoka College was headed by Col. H. M. Hiller, who subscribed $250, and next by Robert S. McKee, who subscribed $200. Then followed a list of eight prominent citizens and firms of Kahoka, who subscribed $100 each, then a larger number who subscribed $50 each, then a still larger number who subscribed $25 each, and then a num- ber larger than all the others subscribed $10 each. According to the articles of association, a subscription of $10 entitles the sub- scriber to one vote. The amount of stock subscribed at the date of incorporation was $3,755.
PIONEER RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.
The real pioneer settlers of a new country-those who select a wild and lonely spot away out on the frontier, and erect a rude habitation thereon, where they intend to make their future home, and where they do in fact remain and endure the priva- tions incident to the settlement of a new country, and subdue the forest and prepare the soil for cultivation, and thus open up and make easy the way for others to follow-are, as a rule, God-fearing and Christian men. And the first real and perma- nent settlers of Clark County were no exception to this rule. Sometimes the actual settlers of a new country are preceded by a few adventurous men of a roving disposition, who seldom remain and become permanent settlers, but as soon as the coun- try around them becomes partially settled push farther on toward a newer country. They, too, perform a useful mission.
The Methodist Episcopal and the Baptist were the pioneer churches of the county. Rev. Jeremiah Taylor, a Baptist min- ister of Marion County, preached the first sermon in Clark County, at the house of Dr. Trabue. The Methodists established the first church society in the county, at St. Francisville, and Rev. Father Allen was the first circuit rider. He preached in St. Francisville and at the residence of George Heywood, and
397
STATE OF MISSOURI.
also at the cabin of Hon. George K. Biggs, at the place where the latter now resides. The second church society in the county was organized by the Baptists, in 1834, at the house of Uncle Jeremiah Wayland, in St. Francisville .* This organization was soon thereafter moved to Fox River, a few miles south of the present village of Wayland, where a church edifice was soon erected. This church was organized with about twelve members, .consisting of Jeremiah Wayland and Rachel, his mother, Robert P. Mitchell and wife, Ursula Floyd, George K. Biggs, Judith P. Mitchell and others. The last two named are the only ones now living. Rev. Andrew Broaddus took charge of this church about the year 1836, and during his administration it was divided, and a portion of its members organized a church again at St. Francisville. Rev. James S. Lillard preached at the house of Fielding Wayland and in the Fox River Church two years. He was then followed by Rev. Andrew Broaddus, who preached four years. Rev. Lillard was then re-engaged, and preached for these people twenty-one years more. He was a resident of Lewis County.
Rev. John J. Martin, a Methodist, who is still living in the county, at a very advanced age, landed at Chambersburg in June, 1837. The only Methodist Church organizations then in the county were the one already mentioned at St. Francisville, one at Chambersburg, and one in the Webber settlement in the south- west part of the county. The original members of the Cham- bersburg Methodist Episcopal Church were Joseph Leonard and his family, and his mother-in-law, Mrs. Dennis, the Flanery Howard family, Luellen Murphy and family, James McClure and family, Miss Stevenson, Albert Sibley and a portion of his family; also George Gray and John Whaley and certain members of their families. The circuit then included all of Clark County, a por- tion of Lewis County, and a part of what is now Scotland County, and the "circuit rider," who was then Rev. Samuel G. Patterson, residing at St. Francisville, had to travel fully 100 miles on a single trip to visit the several points where he was required to preach. It was called a "four weeks' circuit," as it took that length of time for the minister to make the trip, and preach once
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.